


he was your friend.

by lu_marii



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Canon Temporary Character Death, Gen, Ghosts, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Phantommy..., Sleepy Bois Inc Angst, Suicidal Thoughts, Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:47:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29906169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lu_marii/pseuds/lu_marii
Summary: on the way home from snowchester, techno, ranboo, and phil find a ghost in the nether.
Relationships: Ranboo & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 285





	he was your friend.

**Author's Note:**

> yes i know tommy was already revived by the time this stream happened but LOOK. let me fuck with the timeline. tommy was dead for like... a week now. 
> 
> ALSO pleaes god let it be known i am simultaneously a hardcore techno apologist and a hardcore tommy apologist. i think theyre both dumb . i think tommy was wrong to betray techno but i also think tommy is a traumatized kid who deserves some pity and. yeah. yeah. techno is right to be mad but also . yeah . i just want them to be friends 
> 
> and yes i know sbi family not canon but it is in my heart
> 
> i cranked this out in like 15 minutes b kind

they find the ghost in the nether on their way home from snowchester. 

it’s clear why they missed him the first time around. he’s barely there, transparent, the obsidian he’s sitting on - hovering over - easy to see through him. he’s curled in on himself, eyes on the lava far below him. everything about him is dulled, the red of his shirt more of a muddy brown, his face a deathly gray pallor. 

ranboo is the first one to see him, now, and techno and phil probably never would have if it weren’t for him. a short, distressed noise falls from him; he goes stumbling back, eyes wide, and it’s phil who catches him before he trips into the lava. it could almost be a comical sight, with how tall ranboo is compared to phil, but techno is too focused on the ringing in his ears to laugh. 

he _had_ laughed, when ranboo gave them the news. because there was a part of techno that thought _that’s karma_ at the thought of tommy stuck in prison, and because there was a larger part that thought it was a joke: tommy doesn’t die. he’s a pest, an infestation, and he does not die. it’s not as if anyone’s seen the body. 

_told you,_ the voices say, _told you, told you, told you._

half of them cheer. the other half scream. 

the ghost still has not looked up at them. he is staring at the lava. 

(techno remembers. he remembers the weeks tommy spent with him, remembers how, on the way to l’manberg, tommy had paused. and he had stared. and techno had felt something sick in his gut and thought - repeated aloud - _i’ll fight the world for you._

techno’s been betrayed before. never had it made him feel so sick, until it was tommy doing it.) 

he had laughed, because it could not have _possibly_ been true, and if it _was_ true then, well, the kid had it coming. but here is the ghost of his little brother, and it’s not so funny now. 

phil lets go of ranboo and the kid sinks to the obsidian floor slowly, curling up his gangly limbs. even like this he is a little above eye level with the sitting ghost. 

“hey,” ranboo says, choked, “hey, tommy.” 

there’s a long pause. techno fidgets and considers leaving, and the only thing that keeps him here is how he looks back at phil and sees the stricken look on his face. phil catches him looking and quickly smooths his expression back out, but it was there nonetheless. 

eventually, tommy looks up. his eyes are that grey techno remembers from the day he found the kid on his front porch and had to chase him down in the snow, and he stares at ranboo for a moment, uncomprehending. 

there is blood, bright red, on tommy’s face, pouring endlessly from his nose and lips, the bridge of his nose permanently crooked. dream killed him, techno remembers ranboo said. techno tells himself he is not angry. tommy was a traitor and dream is an ally, after all. 

( _no,_ the voices say, _dream is no one’s ally, dream hurt tommy, dream hurt tommy, dream hurt tommy-_

_i do not care,_ techno hisses back.) 

“tommy?” ranboo says again, “it’s - it’s me. it’s ranboo.” he ducks his head, muttering a quiet _ow_ to himself as his hands come up to his face.

techno keeps standing there, shifting on his feet. oh, prime. he does not know what to do. 

“ranboo,” tommy mutters, slowly, some kind of recognition coming into his eyes. “congratulations.” 

“wh - what?” 

tommy was never one for eye contact - only when he was doing it on purpose, trying to intimidate you or mess with you but tommy has ADHD just as much as techno does and his gaze falls quickly from ranboo’s face to somewhere just over his shoulder. “you got married. to tubbo. i saw him a few days ago. but he got sad, and he yelled at me, so i-” 

“he yelled at you?” ranboo asks. 

“he said i was fake. that this was a bad joke.” tommy only seems to curl into himself more. “he was sorta right.”

tommy takes a deep, shuddering breath, then doesn’t exhale. it’s odd - ghostbur does the same thing, take deep breaths he doesn’t need just out of habit then forget to keep breathing afterwards. “i’m sorry i made him sad.” 

ranboo reaches out tentatively, but seems to remember halfway through what would happen if he tried to touch the ghost. his hand hovers in the air between them, trembling. “it’s not your fault, tommy, it’s-” 

he cuts himself off before he says the name. 

techno is not swayed by this sight, he promises himself. it does not matter how small tommy looks, does not matter how tommy stiffens, does not matter that it has been confirmed to him that his traitor of a little brother is dead. 

phil is gone, techno realizes. at some point, he walked away from the ghost and ranboo, and techno isn’t sure if he can blame him or not.

“techno,” tommy says suddenly, looking up past ranboo, and techno goes tense, briefly considering running after phil. again he says, somewhat desperately with wide, glistening eyes - “ _techno,_ techno, i’m sorry i betrayed you-” 

techno pauses. an apology, all things considered, is never quite what one expects from tommy. “what?” 

but tommy is already turning back to the lava. he continues to stare. 

“tommy?” ranboo asks, and does not receive a response. “ _tommy?_ tommy, talk to us, please.” 

tommy closes his eyes. “he’s bringing him back.” he grins - well, more like a grimace. “he’s bringing him back. i can go.” his voice is heavy with - with gratitude? relief? 

techno takes half a step forward. “tommy, what are you talking about? tommy-” 

the ghost slides forward off the bridge into the lava below. ranboo yelps, reaching after him, but even as his hand reaches tommy’s shirt it only passes through. the ghost falls to the lava below, and it can not burn him, but it makes techno’s gut twist nonetheless. 

techno grimaces as he watches ranboo’s shoulders draw up to his ears, hears him mutter quiet _ows_ to himself as tears burn his face. techno does not know how to deal with crying children. 

(he had not known what to do with himself, back when tommy would cry. he did not know what to do when they were young and tommy would cry after skinning his knees, and he did not know what to do when he stumbled across tommy crying after wilbur yelled at him in that ravine, and he did not know what to do when tommy cried in the snow when techno found him after he ran from dream. techno has never been a very affectionate big brother.)

his own eyes burn, but the tears don’t fall. he’s had practice, he supposes. 

“i’m-” techno starts. _sorry,_ he means, but doesn’t say it. “phil and i shouldn’t have laughed earlier. we’re - mad at him, but he is - was - your friend.” 

( _he was your friend_ , techno says, and he ignores the voices in his head that reminds him _he was your brother. he was phil’s son._ )

it was the wrong thing to say. ranboo gives a heavy sob, shoulders shaking. his tears sizzle as they burn his skin and evaporate in the heat of the nether. 

and techno does not cry, but if a bit of steam rises from his face as well, that is no one’s business but his.

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO !! thank u for reading ,, pwease leave a comment if u want it really helps to motivate :) also hmu on twt @itslumarii


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